ATHABASCA/BOYLE — Enter if you dare! It’s the return of the highly popular Zaft’s House of Horrors Haunted Maze.
The Zaft family lives part way between Athabasca and Boyle and for the third time, they will be opening up their home for scare-seekers to enjoy and they only ask only for a food bank donation in return.
“I usually pull everything out of storage the first weekend in October,” Michelle Davis-Zaft said in an Oct. 21 interview. “And then we just get ourselves organized and start putting all the panels up. It usually takes us a couple of days to put all the panels up and then as soon as those are all up, we start decorating.”
Davis-Zaft isn’t into Halloween as much as her haunted maze would imply and she initially did a smaller version in the garage for her children and their friends but when the pandemic hit, she felt compelled to make it bigger and and to allow anyone who dared to enter to do so.
“I try to mix it up so there's something unexpected otherwise people get used to the same layout and I try to incorporate new ideas too. Maybe not every year but I try to if I can,” she said.
The family gives up using most of the lower level of their home to create the haunted maze, which includes motion-activated animatronics and noises, weird and gory imagery, smoke machines. And if you're not careful, you may be scared completely our of your wits as you encounter what may be laying in wait around the next corner.
“As soon as COVID happened, we couldn't have the parties anymore so then I'm thinking how I can still do this because I really enjoy it and I'm passionate about it and so I thought, well, let's just open it up to the public,” she said.
“I think 2020 would have been the first year we opened to the public and it was only in my garage then, and then last year was the first year I ran it through my house. It’s going through the house again this year.”
The only thing the family asks is for a food bank donation or cash. The food will be given to the Boyle Food Bank and all money will be donated to the Colinton Fire Department.
The haunted maze starts Oct. 28 from 7-9 p.m. with nothing too scary for those who don’t want to have nightmares, and then runs again Oct. 29-30 from 6-9 p.m. with all the scary stuff in place and ready to get your heart pumping, exactly how the vampires like it.
“I was trying to decide if I should open it up longer because of the lineup last year … it was like a long-time people were waiting in their vehicles down the road,” said Davis-Zaft. “I just decided to do 6-9 p.m. instead of 7 to 9 p.m., so, an extra hour.”
The Zafts can be found at 643001- Range Road 213 along Highway 663. Turn south on Range Road 213 for 4.8 kilometres. For additional information you can email [email protected].
